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Problem
Germany’s Union Investment Group needed a more flexible option for making its risk management software available to a large number of users.
Solution
Union Investment Group leveraged Attachmate Reflection X in conjunction with Microsoft App-V virtualization technology to quickly stream its financial application to users
Results
- Faster deployment and application access.
- Easier IT administration.
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Rolling out new software to thousands of clients, and then maintaining and providing individual updates for each client, is expensive and can bog down IT staff. Luckily, there is a convincing alternative: application virtualization.
Application virtualization technology lets IT administrators give users access to software applications without having to install those apps on individual desktops. And it’s growing in popularity: In a recent report on virtualized client computing, IDC analysts have confirmed what the market has been telling us for some time—that application virtualization is primed to gain market share in the years to come.
Union Investment Group is embracing this innovative approach as a way to more easily deploy financial planning software to a large number of its users.
An expert in asset management, Union Investment Group has been developing investment solutions for private and institutional investors for over 50 years. In total, more than 4.5 million customers entrust their money to Union Investment, where more than 2,400 employees take care of managed assets in over 980 funds worth about €160 billion.
A Cross-Platform Solution
Wishing to leverage its virtualization platform of choice to access outsourced applications, Union Investment Group chose Attachmate Reflection X as its PC X server.
Reflection X’s cross-platform X server connects end users’ Windows, UNIX, Linux, and Mac desktops with graphical applications running on UNIX. It also supports OpenGL and SSH. “Both of (these technologies) were a key criteria for us,” said Dr. Michael Ostertag, Algo Operations Manager at Union Investment Group.
Here’s how Union Investment Group’s system works: With the company’s risk management software, Algo, running on the UNIX servers of an outsourcing provider, Microsoft App-V streams Algo and Reflection X to users so that they can easily access Algo.
Reflection X Works with Windows 7
Few solutions are capable of delivering streamed software with a graphical user interface to clients, said Dr. Ostertag. Also, he said, Reflection X works well with Windows 7. “Since we’re migrating our clients to Windows 7, we needed software that can easily handle both App-V and the new operating system,” explained Dr. Ostertag.
Now Union Investment Group users can use the screen options they want, while enjoying maximum security—a key factor should the company decide to virtualize additional services.
“Reflection X offers top-notch security—especially for companies in markets that rely on mission-critical data and protecting it, such as banking or financial institutions. Reflection X is a cross-platform solution that not only works on a wide variety of traditional platforms, but also emerging platforms like Microsoft App-V,” said Kris Lall, Reflection Product Marketing Manager at Attachmate.